As many of you may remember, we postponed our annual Demo Day & Final Pitch (which normally happen in May) to give our students more time to develop their ideas in the midst of uncertainty and change surrounding the pandemic. Last week, many of you voted for your favorite startups during a virtual Demo Day the Pre app, and also attended our virtual Final Pitch where you heard from startups competing in our four categories for top prizes. In all, CCNY startups collected close to $150,000 in prizes, which they'll use to further develop their businesses. We hope to share more… Read More »
To our Zahn community: we hope that all of you and your loved ones are safe and healthy during this trying time. Here at the Zahn Center, we have been lucky enough to continue our programming online. The 2020 Cohort was about halfway through their competition when CCNY went into a distance learning model, and theyve continued to meet with staff, mentors, and complete weekly bootcamp workshops. Although in a different manner, weve managed to provide the same educational content. However, our MakerLab has been closed since mid-March. Students, especially those working on… Read More »
This weeks team highlight is Green Capsule, an innovative and eco-friendly heating and cooling system designed by a team of architects. Green Capsule is one of the startup teams competing for the Standard Chartered Women+Tech4NYC $25,000 grand prize sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank as part of their Futuremakers initiative. I was able to meet virtually with Ina Dajci, who isGreen Capsules Marketing Specialist. She shared with me her teams concept, what they hope to gain from the Zahn Center, and their hopes for Green Capsules future. The team includes CCNY Spitzer School of… Read More »
As the world continues dealing with a public health crisis, we believe it is important to maintain a sense of normalcy for the students in our program. Weve continued all instruction online, including our weekly lean startup bootcamp, mentor hours, and workshops, and so far weve found that our students are engaging with our content more than ever. Were still working towards the goal of showing off their progress at a virtual Pitch Off in early May. Demo Day will be postponed until the early Fall. We had previously planned to highlight our student startups one by one, and have… Read More »
What is Mechanical/Advanced Manufacturing? The Zahn Innovation Centers Mechanical Advanced Manufacturing (AM) Pod is part of our apprenticeship program. The pod aims to help students learn how to take a concept to plan, design, and manufacture that idea into a working product. The main goal is to create the stages of a manufacturing system that produces a product in the most time-efficient and cost-effective way. Essentially everything we use in our daily lives is man-made, or manufactured. Currently, many manufacturing engineers work in the automation, aerospace, and the… Read More »
The Electrical Engineering (EE) team is one of the 3 engineering pods here at the Zahn Center. EE is a subfield of engineering that works with electricity. Electrical engineers can work on a variety of things from circuit components, to different electrical control systems, to tiny microchips. Here at the Zahn Center, the electrical engineering pod focuses on both personal and client projects that involve electrical work. For example, theyre currently working on a life-sized replica of an R2D2 robot for a client that can be controlled through the voice controlled assistant Alexa… Read More »
Looking to mentor our newest cohort? Find the form here.The end of the year means were welcoming new startup ideas for our 2020 cohort! Over the past few weeks, weve worked with expert judges–from investors to successful entrepreneurs, educators to executives–to help evaluate our entries. We've selected 28 CCNY student-led projects (our biggest cohort yet!) who will compete for the Standard Chartered Women+Tech4NYC Prize, the Kaylie Hardware Prize, and the Zahn Social Impact & Zahn Technology Prizes. Although the competition will officially kick off next semester with… Read More »
As part of our Apprentice Program Blog series, the below is written by Marketing Pod Apprentice & CCNY student Emily Santana. What Is CAD?The Zahn Innovation Centers CAD Pod is part of our apprenticeship program which aims to help transform students ideas into a 3D reality. CAD is short for Computer Aided Design, which is the process of using computer software to aid in the creation of a product. CAD software enables designers to create, visualize, manipulate, and test objects before theyre set into real-world conditions. For example, it is often used within automotive… Read More »
This year, the Zahn Center expanded their career building apprenticeship program to include a new marketing and communications team. The pod aims to spread awareness about the Zahn Center and create a community of startups and innovative students within CCNY. Joining the marketing pod this year was a way for me to expand my marketing and communication skills, and explore fun and creative ways to learn new things. When I read the email about the pod application, I immediately knew that it was something I had to pursue. Meeting our pod members for the first time was a… Read More »
Youll get a lot of nos, but you have to overcome them to realize your dreams. These were some of Judaline Cassidys words before she led our students in a warrior cry at the culmination of Communitas Americas Impact Career Program. By now youve heard about the program that trains students for careers in the social impact realm, and know that weve paired it with our Apprenticeship Program, a career-readiness program out of our MakerLab that allows CCNY students the opportunity to develop their skills by working on projects within our MakerLab. This summer, some of our apprentices… Read More »
Last Updated: 10/08/2020 22:24